What Is the Endocannabinoid System?

Since the dawn of the agricultural civilization, cannabis has been grown for a variety of material as well as nutritional and medicinal benefits. But, it wasn’t until fairly recently that the true nature of this remarkable plant was truly understood and this knowledge led to a better understanding of how the living body works in human and non-human animals.

The Endocannabinoid System

The endocannabinoids system is an intrinsic neural messaging system that exists in the bodies of human beings, vertebrates, and even some invertebrates. This messaging system plays an important role in allowing organisms to adapt to their surroundings. The endocannabinoid system, or ECAS, is most evolved in human beings and other primates.

The ECS and its important functions are a fairly new discovery and scientists have barely a half-century of collected information on the many workings of the ECS and its pervasive communications systems. Even though the information we have is limited, it is already and exciting topic in the health and medical community and provides a wide range of potential for treating the very worst conditions plaguing humans today.

It may not surprise you to know that the phytocompounds of the cannabis plant were discovered before the ECS. As a matter of fact, it was through researching the effects of cannabinoids on the human body that scientists were first able to witness the ECS in action, hence its name.

The most important thing we have come to learn through the studies of the ECS is that science and medicine are still learning a lot about how the human body functions. The ECS itself has presented complexities and facts that have caused medical science to rethink its approach to medicine and health treatments.

As an intrinsic messenger system, the ECS has receptors located all around the body and special set of chemical messengers called “endocannabinoids” that it uses to send messages here and there and control important aspects of the health. The word “endocannabinoids” refers to those chemicals produced in the human body that affect the ECS.

There are two receptors of the ECS that have been studied and observed in action, especially in their benefits to addressing human health and balancing homeostasis. These are cannabinoid receptor 1, better known as CB1 and cannabinoid receptor 2, also called CB2. CB1 is found extensively in the nervous system, the brain, and gonads. While CB2 receptors are found in the digestive systems, structures of the immune system, the major vital organs and the skin. The functions of these receptors are complex, pervasive and far beyond the full understanding of modern medical science.

Many experts believe that there are many other endocannabinoid receptors located in the body with other functions that have yet to be discovered. It is quite possible that any other cannabinoid receptors found in the body will have their very own functions which have nothing to do with those mentioned here.

The ECS pays special attention to the ways the body is reacting and modulates these responses for the best experience possible. When the body is sick and suffering infections, the ECS attenuates the inflammatory and fever responses of the immune system so the body doesn’t burn up. IT also helps to regulate the stress response and even has an impact on learned fear experiences.